Once more, into th' Iceberg!
by Cynic the Supercritic
Summary: Observation: It is possible to count the number of time travel stories in the ATLA fandom on one hand.  Solution: Write some frickin' fanfics, timebending style. Oneshot series. NOT limited to just Aang; will include others later. Keywords: Groundhog Day.
1. Aang: 1,000

The sheer cold of the South Pole greeted his reawakening senses, and Aang could not withhold a sigh.

He knew that it was too much to hope for to think that he'd died for real _this _time. Hundreds of lifetimes and thousands of years of life made him cynical of the prospect of being freed from this never-ending torment of eternal life. He knew better.

… That still didn't stop him from hoping every tenth life or so, though.

_Oh well. Business as usual, then._

He opened his eyes, and Katara's visage swam into view against the backdrop of blistering white sky. He saw her smile as his gaze focused.

_What should I do this time?_ He wondered. Over the course of so many lifetimes, he had done it all; boredom, and the need to do and see new things drove him to heretofore unmentioned heights of ridiculousness. He'd kissed Katara; told her with complete sincerity that he loved her, to her great discomfort. He'd told the two siblings that he was a really, _really _deep undercover spy. Once, he was feeling curious enough to make a pass at Sokka, just to see how much it'd freak them out. And one time, he'd told them that he was a genie that was there to grant wishes to whoever freed him; that was a really fun one.

He'd even killed them, once, a long time ago; threw a couple of fireballs in their faces.

He was in a bad mood that time.

This time…

There were a couple of relatively recent lifetimes which he had spent meditating, for the most part. He'd gone off and ripped Ozai's firebending from his spirit as fast as he could, leaving Katara and Sokka at the South Pole and making absolutely no detours on his way to the Fire Nation. He also took Azula's bending away from her for good measure. Then he went to the tallest peak of the tallest mountain and lived the rest of his days in isolation, making sure that he absolutely could not be found. Then he spent his days in reflection upon his past lives, trying to discover his own purpose. It seemed that no matter what Aang did in his life, he was sent back to the iceberg to live it again. Unrepentant evil, mediocrity, saintliness… Nothing changed.

It wasn't until the end of the last of those lives that he decided, finally, that it didn't matter what he did. All that mattered was that Aang live his lives to the best of his ability and to his utmost satisfaction. After all, he had no idea when the eternity might suddenly, abruptly stop, and he didn't want to go to the afterlife bemoaning that he had wasted so many chances to live a good life.

So he had stopped worrying, and simply… lived. And it was _fun_. It's not like there was _nothing_ new. That's what made life worth living; even though he'd lived in the same window of time for _eons, _there was always something new. It didn't happen often, but when he saw or experienced something that he had never had the privilege to experience before… He cherished it.

So this time, when he awoke from his millionth one-hundred-year slumber, Aang chuckled and smiled warmly up at his first love and said, "Hi Katara."

She started, and dropped Aang onto the ice in shock while confusion etched itself onto her face.

"Wha… How do you know my name?"

Sokka recovered with a vengeance, bringing his spear to bear and pointing it at Aang's throat.

"Yeah, how _do_ you know, Fire Nation spy?" he growled out.

Aang chuckled and waved sheepishly from where he laid, "Hi Sokka."

"Gah! How did you-! Would you quit being weird and explain yourself!"

Sokka waggled his spear threateningly, Katara looked like she wanted to intervene, but she seemed just curious enough to let her brother interrogate the boy.

"My name's Aang; I'm the Avatar," he said, as though that explained everything.

Katara gasped.

Momentarily stunned by the non sequitur, the water tribesman scoffed, "If you're gonna lie, you should at least _try_ to make it believable. And don't change the subject!" he emphasized this with a light poke of his weapon, "How do you know our names? And how'd you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen?"

Aang innocently asked, "Which question do you want me to answer?"

Sokka blustered for a second before he blurted, "The first one! And don't think you can get out of answering the other ones!"

"My arrow told me," he cheerfully elaborated.

The poor guy's jaw dropped, and Aang had to laugh. He knew that he'd have to come up with something more credible later, but for now he felt like messing with them. Sokka's spear lowered, and Aang took the opportunity to messily airbend himself upright, which startled Katara enough out of her daze to gape.

"You… You're an airbender!"

Loving this game of keeping the water tribe siblings off-balance, Aang looked at her funnily, "Well, duh… I'm the Avatar. Didn't I just say that?"

And with that, he turned around to face the iceberg and bent away the ice forming the bubble surrounding Appa, causing it to melt into the ocean.

Sokka actually _fainted_.

Katara didn't look like she was far behind her brother.

"Appa!" Aang cried out, and he sprang forward with a flying leap to land on his friend's forehead.

His tears were soaking into Appa's fur as he said, "I missed you so much, buddy."

He meant it, too. Appa had died forty years before Aang passed away in his sleep. It was a typical thing that happened often in his various lives; he hated it every time.

Belatedly, he realized that the flying bison was still waking up from cryogenic sleep. He reached down and lifted the creature's eyelid, saying "Come on, boy! Wake up!"

When Appa mooed his response, Aang sighed with relief and said, "You're okay!"

He knew that, but it always felt so reassuring to hear him after such a long time.

In the time that he was bringing his friend into wakefulness, Katara had slapped her brother awake, and – after scolding him – practically dragged him with her over to Aang.

Then, when Aang turned around to offer them a ride back, Katara gave him a bow which was hastily copied by his brother.

"It is a great honor to meet you, Avatar. My brother, Sokka, has something to say to you."

When he remained silent in his bowing position, his sister elbowed him, causing an undignified squeak to escape his lips before he replied.

"I'm very sorry that I threatened you earlier, your awesome, super Avatariness. I promise that I won't ever do anything like that ever again.

"That's not how you were supposed to say it!" Katara whispered angrily out of the corner of her mouth.

"How was I supposed to say it! How do _you_ know how to-"

They were cut off by Aang's giggling.

"Guys, you don't have to apologize! If I was in your position, I'd be worried, too," he said. Then he shifted uncomfortably, glancing down at the snow while bringing his hand up to the back of his neck and rubbing. "And… If you could please just call me Aang? Only people who don't really like me have ever called me by my title, and you're my friends!"

While Katara slowly got out of her kowtow, Sokka immediately got out of his bow with express relief on his face, but then a look of morbid curiosity came over his face.

"What _is_ that thing?"

"This is Appa, my flying bison," said Aang fondly, "He's been with me for his whole life!"

For a moment, Sokka looked like he was about to contest the notion that Appa was a flying bison, but after a second his face went carefully blank. Then lifted a finger and pointed at Aang, "You know what… I think I'm just gonna go with you on this one."

Aang and Katara both laughed. Everything about this scene felt familiar; he'd probably lived it out at least a couple of times. He looked at his friends caringly, happy to see them young again.

Both of them had died of old age in his last lifetime, and it was always the worst way to go out. He had to watch them both become feeble and weak to the ravages of time, watched them succumb to its life-sucking grip. Sure, he felt himself go the same way, but that hardly mattered – he'd felt it tens of thousands of times before, even though it always felt horrible. But his friends… They suffered. It made Aang feel helpless in the worst way.

But then he smiled and easily drowned those bad days with a deluge of happy memories.

He beckoned with his hand, "Climb on! Appa's probably too tired to fly from sleeping for so long, but I think he can handle swimming; I'll take you back to your village, since it seems you've lost your boat."


	2. Aang: 642

A long time ago, Aang became enlightened about a certain divine truth.

There is no boundary in bending.

This incredible, powerful fact was not known by any Avatar previous to Aang; he knew this because he took the time that he had to get to know the five hundred and sixty-two Avatars that came before him.

Aang doubted that even Pathik knew the sheer depth of the illusion of separation that plagued the Chakra of Light. Nor did he think that Pathik knew just how appropriate the name of that Chakra was.

He came to understand the truth in this way:

Firebending… In truth, the bending discipline of energy and light. Fire, lightning, light, chi, even magnetism would bend to the will of a firebender. It is the most fundamental of the four disciplines… it touches the purest expression of existence in the universe. All things are made of energy (_the energy present in an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by the square of the speed of light…)_, therefore, if a firebender has significant control and imagination…

Earthbending… In truth, the bending discipline of matter. What makes up the Earth? He pursued that question once with a scientific curiosity, and was subsequently astounded by the variety of the substances which made up the earth. If stone can be bent, so can crystals; if crystals can be bent, so can minerals; if minerals can be bent, so can metal and ice; if ice can be bent, so can water. And so on and so forth, ad infinitum…

Waterbending… In truth, the bending discipline of motion and dynamic flow. Push and pull, yin and yang. The true essence of the discipline is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction; it is not about the water, but the tides. A good waterbender that can grasp this would know then that any fluid can be bent... even air. Heat is merely an extremely small version of kinetic motion; tiny, unbreakable building blocks of matter striking and bouncing back. Freeze, unfreeze… heat up… hotter…

Airbending… In truth, the bending discipline of transience. Here today, gone tomorrow. Things do not work the same way when they are extremely small… things can exist in more than one place, things can move almost freely across time… they can even appear, or disappear. These effects become more infrequent as the scope of observation grows larger… but what is that, to an airbender, who can tell the wind to blow against its source?

And, eventually, finally, ultimately… Aang came to the conclusion that any bender of sufficient skill should be able to bend anything.

Knowing these secrets wouldn't be enough, though. It would require a deep familiarity with the way the universe works… So deep, in fact, that it would take several lifetimes to cultivate it; then a few more lifetimes of practicing the bending.

And Aang smirked as he stood upon the pillar of stone, staring across the chasm way at the man who had the _audacity _to call himself ruler of the world.

_How can you rule something that you don't understand in the slightest?_

Ozai seemed considerably more worried about Aang's presence than he was in his first life; he wasn't smiling like before, for starters, "You have been a thorn in my side, undoing the work of generations in the span of months! Finally, the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence!"

The Avatar's grin merely widened, "You know what? I'm so glad that you exist. Do you have any idea how _cathartic_ this is for me?"


	3. Aang: 105

Zhao grinned madly as he held up the bag containing the _weak_ Moon Spirit as it twitched its dying throes. His destiny was within his grasp; 'elation' felt like an understatement of his personal feelings on the matter.

"I… am a legend, now… I will be called Zhao the Conqueror! Zhao the _Moon-slayer_! Zhao… the _Invincible_!"

"Really?"

And now the whole spirits-damned day was ruined.

He spun around in his position in front of the Oasis, turning around to face the owner of that _hated_ voice.

"_You_," he snarled, and his four firebending guards leapt into offensive stances, observing at the newcomer with a healthy wariness.

Zhao made the mistake of underestimating the Avatar during their first encounter because he wore the face of a child; stupidly, he had forgotten that the Avatar was a being that was reincarnated over the course of thousands of years, so of _course_ he's older than he appears. He's more powerful, more experienced, and more deadly.

The Avatar raised an eyebrow. He was expressionless, aside from that, which was unnerving because usually he _laughed_. It was a horrible little laugh, and he laughed it every time that he trounced Zhao in whatever encounter they had. He had never been more humiliated in his life each and every time they met in battle.

But this face… It reminded him of someone…

"Me," he replied in an unbearably, _mockingly _calm voice.

The admiral answered with a fierce grin, for now he couldn't fail. "There's nothing that you can do now, Avatar," he said, holding up the bag containing his prize in front of his other fist, "I am going to kill the Moon Spirit, and _end_ the Water Tribes once and for all. And there is _absolutely nothing _that you can do to stop me."

And he had stop talking as he hungrily looked for anguish, despair, _something_ to crash down on the Avatars face…

And was instead rewarded with a blankness that was somehow _worse_ than that damnable laugh.

"You know what? That is a _terrible_ idea. It would shatter the balance; do you have _any_ idea what kind of chaos that would unleash? I do."

Zhao snorted. "Of course _you_ would say that. Well, your _precious _balance can–"

"I'm sorry, maybe I should explain," began the Avatar as he casually stepped forward. His guards tensed spasmodically at the movement, but didn't strike, for the Avatar looked at each of them in amusement before stepping back to where he was standing before. He continued, "You are about to kill the Moon. That is, the _lover _of the ocean."

Nonplussed, Zhao snapped, "I already know that! What's your point?"

The Avatar rolled his eyes, "My point, as you put it, is that, more likely than not, the Ocean may have a _slight_ problem with that. And, last time I checked, the Fire Nation is an _archipelago _of _islands_ surrounded by _ocean_," he paused, and then, nonchalantly, "Did I mention that the chaos would likely target the Fire Nation with _prejudice_ if you go on with this?"

The Admiral was frozen where he stood.

"I wonder how well your military career will go if you deny the Fire Nation _any_ chance to win the war at all… Forever."

Finally he was able to confusedly splutter, "Why do _you_ care about _that_? You're the _Avatar_; wouldn't you _want _us to be destroyed?"

"No," he answered simply, and the Avatar sat down in the grass in front of them, completely at ease in front of _five _master firebenders, "I'm just telling you what the situation is in terms that you understand, _Admiral _Zhao."

And the corner of the Avatar's mouth twitched upwards in a vindictive smirk of victory.

_You manipulative little demon_.

Zhao's mind burst into a haze of rage, red filling his vision. For one, single, precious second, he completely lost it. He didn't care about the consequences anymore; if there existed _any_ way at all that he could wipe that smirk from the Avatar's face, he would do it. So he thrust his fist into the fish's bag…

And suddenly found that his movements were frozen before he could call forth his fire.

The Avatar had his hand outstretched in his direction. His previously blank expression was now marred with a twitching eye and a visible flash of annoyance.

"You know, you are incredibly frustrating. Do you have any idea how much work it has taken to get to this point?"

Detachedly, somewhere in a part of his mind that wasn't drowning in terror right now, Zhao noted that his arms were moving _decidedly _against his will and dropped the bag containing the moon spirit into the pond behind him. His guards were frozen in place, being held back by whatever horrendous witchery the Avatar was working upon them.

"You and your temper are _impossible_! I try to talk you into doing the right thing through your own free will, but _nooooo_…" complained the Avatar, bitterness seeping into every syllable, "You just had to _go nuts _and decide to throw all of creation into _chaos_ just because you wanted to _show me who's boss_."

He was standing, ranting and raving and waving his arms about, and the five firebenders in the oasis moved in synchrony with his arms in a sort of macabre dance.

Now the Avatar pointed a finger at Zhao, cold, inhuman rage burning in his storm-gray eyes, "I consider myself to be a fairly level-headed guy, but congratulations, Zhao! You've become a bigger _pain in the neck _than even _I _thought was possible. With that in mind, _admiral…_"

And a gratuitous grin stretched across the child's face, even as Zhao felt his throat begin to close from some kind of outside force.

"Did you know that blood is mostly made out of water?"


End file.
